


The King in Eddis

by Canon_Is_Relative



Category: The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Genre: Crack Treated Seriously, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Gen being Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-06
Updated: 2015-06-06
Packaged: 2018-04-03 02:19:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4082914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Canon_Is_Relative/pseuds/Canon_Is_Relative
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How <i>The King of Attolia</i> might have gone, if Gen had taken a certain offhanded remark at the end of <i>Queen</i> a little more seriously....</p>
            </blockquote>





	The King in Eddis

**Author's Note:**

> I dedicate this story to my sister [](http://mortalasabee.livejournal.com/profile)[mortalasabee](http://mortalasabee.livejournal.com/), who introduced me to this series, and who laughed at the offhand remark that led to this ridiculosity in the first place. I just rediscovered this, I'd completely forgotten about it. [Originally posted here in celebration of the release of CoK in 2010.](http://queensthief-fic.livejournal.com/2010/03/23/) Italics are quotes from _Queen_.

_Eddis turned back to Eugenides, who was rubbing his cheek where Attolia's hand had rested and looked suddenly bleak._

_"I think," he said slowly. "I think I didn't think all this out."_

_"Marrying her, you mean?" Eddis sat down next to him, concerned._

_"Nooo," he said, and he looked over at her. In his eyes, Eddis saw a hint of something she couldn't remember having seen there before. Panic. "I didn't think about being king," he said, his voice hoarse, either from worry or from the bruises around his neck._

***

Eugenides groaned and groped for an extra pillow, pulling it over his eyes. "Who left the gods-damned curtains open?" His indignance was somewhat muffled but his wife, sitting a few paces away at the desk, heard him.

"When it's barely an hour before noon, husband," she said lightly, not looking up, "I think you've foregone your right to complain about sunlight."

He shook his head emphatically, but tossed the pillow away and sat up to look at her. "I was up very late last night. I was busy doing all kinds of Kingly things."

Now she did look at him, and she frowned. "Dancing with the Baroness Polonitia until midnight and raiding the wine cellar with her husband after is not what I would call Kingly behavior."

"Wouldn't you?" Eugenides rose lithely to his feet, raising his arms above his head, lifting onto his toes and stretching out his back. He rejoiced in the cool mountain air against the bare skin of his chest. He dropped back down and studied his wife. She looked as composed and beautiful as ever, every shining hair proclaiming her to be the Queen of Attolia while he stood there, the half-naked, goat-footed former Thief of Eddis. _I may have stolen their queen, but at least no one can accuse me of stealing her throne,_ he thought, crossing the room to kiss her. Clever fingers brushed against her hair. He straightened. "Baron Polonitus is a traitor. He came here as a spy for the Mede. His wife dropped me enough hints as we danced that it was easy enough to trap him in his own lies, once I loosened his lips a little. I fully expect to be flayed alive by Xonocles," he added, thinking with a smile of the master vintner whose prize casks he had tapped into last night in the pursuit of truth.

Attolia blinked, unmoving for several seconds. Then she stood. "I must speak with--"

"Relius?" Eugenides took her hand in his as her dark hair tumbled, freed of several key hairpins, down her back. "I already have. Baron Polonitus is awaiting your justice in a cell below. His wife is housed in a little more comfort in a sealed bedchamber."

She looked down at their clasped palms, freeing her hand to inspect the jeweled hairpins she now held. Her eyes narrowed, and Eugenides ducked his head. "I didn't think you'd mind. You were sleeping so peacefully last night, I didn't want to wake you."

Over his shoulder, Attolia saw the bedroom door open. Eugenides turned at the sound.

"There you are, Gen," the Magus of Sounis said, glancing up at him and back down at the heavy book he carried. "I need you to look at something for me. I'm in disagreement with Relius over the interpretation of _Thales's Elementals_. Relius thinks that this scroll," he held up his other hand, "is not an entirely accurate translation."

He looked up to find himself on the receiving end of twin arched eyebrows and skeptical gazes. He lifted his own eyebrows, a mild expression touching the corners of his mouth. "If you're about to lecture me about the courtesy of knocking, Gen, I might remind you that this is a library, which is typically considered to be a place of learning, not…" his eyes took in the Queen's mussed hair and the latticework of scars marking the King's bare torso. He looked up to meet Eugenides's glare. "And it _is_ almost noon."

"And what makes you think I know anything about Archaic? Or Thales?" Eugenides snapped. This was the second time this month the Magus had seen fit to intrude into the sanctuary of his bedroom without so much as a by-your-leave.

"You translated it," the Magus said, tossing the script in its gilded case to Eugenides.

He had to release his hold on his wife to catch it, snatching it out of the air. He had recognized it as it was arcing towards him, and he tucked it under his right arm, sighing. He _had_ translated it, and now he would have to defend it. But he wasn't going to get dressed to do it.

Stalking through the doorway after the Magus, Attolia following, they all emerged into the library proper, where Relius and the Queen of Eddis were bent over a scroll stretched across a table. Eugenides stopped short, glaring again.

"You," he barked at the queen's bowed head. "You're here, and you let him barge into my bedroom? Maybe you ought to marry him, since he already has free reign of your country, including _my library_."

" _My_ library, Gen." Eddis said without looking up. He crossed his arms over his chest and waited. She sighed and marked her place with her finger and looked up, taking in the sight of her shirtless and glaring former thief, and his queen, who was fully and resplendently clothed and glaring in an only slightly more polite fashion. " And it's no more than you deserve for trying to run your kingdom from mine. When I asked if you expected her to marry you and move into my library..." she looked back down at the scroll, shaking her head and muttering, "I never thought you were going to take it as an invitation."

***

_Eddis stared. "Your capacity to land yourself in a mess because you didn't think first, Eugenides, will never cease to amaze me. What do you mean you didn't think about being king? Is Attolia going to marry you and move into my library?"_


End file.
